The Adventures of Rin
by foxygirlchan
Summary: What Rin thinks throughout the game, before, present and after the storyline. [Drabbles and oneshots] 'I cannot change my heritage, or my eyes.' The problems with being an Al Bhed salesman.
1. Beginning

**The adventures of Rin, the Al Bhed salesman.**

Rin was always an Al Bhed salesman. Even in his younger days [He was still young, mind you.

Some days, however, he wishes he wasn't.

"Al Bhed! Feh! I wouldn't sleep in there if you paid me to!"

Sometimes those were words he heard from those passing by.

He tried his best to make his inns as inviting as he could to anyone and everyone, but it seemed those followers of Yevon could always find something to complain about.

"He probably used machina to build his inns!"  
["I assure you that I made my inns as any other citizen does."

"His signs are in Al Bhed! That heathen! How dare he?!"

["My signs have other languages on them too, not just Al Bhed."

"Why's he always speaking in Al Bhed?! Can't he see I don't speak it?!"  
["I don't speak Al Bhed in my store often."

"He's Al Bhed!"   
["I am sorry, but I cannot change my heritage, or… My eyes."

_Just another day in my life. It'll get better. They'll learn to tolerate Al Bhed as just another person, just as another race, in Spira, just like the Ronso or the Guado. _

_People aren't that heartless._

He tells himself this every day, ever since he opened.


	2. Man in red

**I need to write more stories.**

Rin remembers the man in red.

They had just started finishing up construction on his new location in the Calm Lands, when an unexpected visitor had stumbled through the doors.

"May I help you?" he asked, turning with a smile, only to have it turn into a frown.

The first thing he though?

"You're getting blood all over my new floor…" he mourned, staring with wide eyes at the long gash dripping the liquid onto the shiny polished wood.

"Get me medical attention. Now," barked the warrior monk, barely able to hold himself up at the doorway.

"Cid! Get me the healer!" Rin exclaimed into the shop with a frantic air, rushing to the man's side, helping him onto a table, and later onto a bed.

"Thank… You…" the man breathed out as his eyes closed… Well, one eye, anyways. It seemed the other was coated in dry blood.

"No problem. Although…" He laughed at the thought in his head, "You still have to pay for your room."

The man grunted a laugh and fell into unconsciousness.

Finally, the healer arrived and began to cast spells and force the unconscious conscious man to drink potions.

And all the while Rin counted up how much he owed him.

Unfortunately, the man had left the next day.

And to Rin's anguish…

Without paying.


	3. Summoner and Guardians

**By the way, just as a note, I've never played FFX-2 and I don't ever plan to.**

Rin remembers the Summoner and her Guardians.

He purposely followed them after a while, knowing they would rest in his Travel Agencies with a very strong knowledge.

And he was surprised to find that Rikku, Cid's daughter, was following them too! No, she was a Guardian!

What a blissful breaking of the teachings… Well, there was no REAL rule against Al Bhed Guardians, but no one even dreamed of such a thing.

He also noticed the man in red. He learned the name of the man after a while, the legendary Guardian Sir Auron.

He had not forgotten about the money he owed him…

When he tried to ask about the matter, he seemed to have brought up the wrong subject when mentioning the gash. Auron didn't want to talk to him about it, so he pursued it no further.

After all, who was he to make his customers uncomfortable? Even if they didn't actually pay…


	4. What's in a name?

**Final Fantasy X-2 is canon, so my stories are non-canon, at least after FFX.**

**I've decided to write to themes, so… yeah.**

**15 minute writing theme:**What's in a name?

-----

My name, if translated into Yevon's language, is "hur", which isn't a word at all.

Rikku's name is "huggo", which sounds like a horrible name for a male child.

Cid's name is "sut", which sounds a lot like soot.

An Al Bhed's name doesn't mean much to those of Yevon's language, but to us Al Bhed, a name is just like theirs. It holds a piece of us. It is our identification. It makes us, us.

However, they think that our names are odd, with their vowels in all the wrong places, just like our language, with the constants jumbled up in a garble of words only we understand.

If you asked me, "sely" doesn't sound like a word either, Maester Mica.


	5. Smile

**15 minute writing theme:** Smile

-----

He smiled before it was over.

He had faith in them, he really did, but the looks on everyone's faces were that of fear, of skepticism, of anything but hope really. Well, at least the faces of those who were not on the airship, because if you were right in front of Sin you _had_ to have hope.

He looked out of the glass at Sin and thought silently "he's pretty big".

When Sin disappeared, into a large mass of pyreflies and he saw all the people on the planet, there was a sound he heard. As if all had been holding their breaths and had just exhaled after holding it in for too long.

Far too long.

He didn't catch it then, but he felt himself smile out and noticed… He probably had been holding his breath too, and his smile felt sincere, full of hope, full of happiness, full of a lot of things and he surprised himself.

All this time he thought he had faith in them, and that he truly believed, but it seemed he was only fooling himself. But now he knew that he could place his hopes and dreams on them and they wouldn't fall, he could give them his life and they wouldn't drop it.

He could smile and he'd mean it, and that was the best feeling in the world.


	6. I caught fire

**15 min. writing theme:** I caught fire

-----

Wide-eyed, Rikku stared at Rin with a glint of amusement and worry.

After a while of this, Rin became extremely uncomfortable.

"What is it little one?" he asked, looking away from the machina he was fixing and down towards the small girl who was squatting next to his tools.

Her eyes were staring at him but NOT at the same time. As if she wasn't looking at his face but…

"There is little fire there, Rin" she stated, staring at him.

"Little fire...?" he thought out loud, searching around and then trailing her gaze towards somewhere behind him. He noticed nothing that resembled a blaze and looked back at the young girl, giving her a confused look.

She smiled and stuck her tongue out at him.

"'Course, Rin can't see," she said matter-a-factly, a proud look on her face as Rin kept staring at her.

"And why is that?" he asked as he went back to fixing the machina, brushing the comment off as childishness.

"'Cause it ain't something most people can see!" she huffed, giving him a sort of angry look.

"Really?" he asked, a part of the machina breaking and throwing oil all over his face. He clicked his tongue in a disapproving way and bent down to grab a rag, but found the other Al Bhed already handing it towards him.

He smiled, she was too cute. He found it impossible that Cid could ever yell at her, which is why it probably never happened often. Unless she had done something she shouldn't have, like sneaking out at night with Kyakku to go hunt the ghosts who haunt the 3rd corridor, or stuffing Brother's face in the mud [again.

"It's like… Fire in you Rin!" she replied excitedly as he took the rag and wiped his face off.

"Oh?"

"Yes! Pops' has too! He says it called…" She crossed her arms and closed her eyes, as if she was in intense concentration. He watched her silently, wondering what she might be thinking… If Brother had dropped her off the boat again…

"It called 'rage', think" she cried happily, clapping her hands and grinning.

"What makes you think I'm angry?" he asked, smiling at her. She had used a word she had just learned, he knew. She was still learning English, so her sentences were just fragments at the moment. She probably had no idea what she was talking about.

"Because pops says you don't get customers. 'Cause you Al Bhed. I no understand why they so mean to us…" she sighed, as if it was just a trivial thing. Rin smiled at her and patted her head.

_Oops, got some oil on her._

"I don't have rage, dear," he turned towards the machina again, but sighed at the same time he put the tool on the metal. "But I am upset."

"Upset?" she asked, attempting to pronounce the word.

"Yes."

"Why you 'up' 'set'?"

"Oh nothing. Just some more of those Yevonites…"

"They do some bad thing to Rin?!" she gasped, her hands coming up to her mouth.

"They keep breaking my windows…"


End file.
